San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-03-01
CHAPTER vi.
THE FACE AT THE WINDOW.

THE FACE AT THE Window.
"But what about the little girl who
sent the carriers to your relief?" asked
Edie, the youngest of the sisters, who
had listened with breathless interest to
Dicks second and amended version of
the perils so recently endured; "you
ought to make enquiries about her,
and"
"Ha, to be surel" calculated Dick;
"but now must tell you the best of
the jokel The carriers declare-and |
am personally disposed to endorse their
sentiments-that the girl was no girl;
in other words not human being of
flesh and blood, not living breathing
fellow-creature, but a formless, bone
less wrath! Some such historic per-
sonage, l am cEediblly informed, haunts
these parts and"
''Oh, Dick, don't talk nonsensel"
cried Kate with a short hysterical
laugh, for all the girls were more or less
over-excited, and the inevitable reac-
ton might be expected at any moment
to set in; ''if you allude to the Barnes
Common Ghost, and know of no 9TH
er, you don't really suppose"
'She went all that way out of her u.s.
ual beatp Is that what you would in
fer, Kittiep" the vicar asked calmly as
the girl paused.
Then of course one and all laughed
heartily, albeit Kate forthwith launched
into an unnecessarily elaborate eXpla-
nation, intended to make clear to her
listeners that she never had believed in
ghosts even when child; so now if
Dick were so stupid as to suppose it
possible, She
"She cherished in maturity any such
delusionl" that hero interpolated qui-
city, ''he was not far off the truth"
whereupon Kittie grew crimson and
appealed to mamma whether it was
fair of Dick to make fun of her, for the
general edification.
Mamma contented herself by smiling
and reserving judgment the while she
filled small glasses round" with a de-
lectable and highly odoriferous decoc-
ton which was styled lemon puuch,"
a celebrated brew" for which the vi
Garage was famous; but which the ma
ter declared to be only orthodox and
the year. 1t was none the less appreci-
ated on that account, however, and
when Dick, as a privileged guest and
invalid, had drained his beaker and
passed it up to the presiding Hebe with
strict injunctions that it was to be "a
bumper this time to make amends for
short measure in the last glass the
general hilarity was at its height. Then
the rector closed his eyes and pretend
ed to be doing, in order possibly to es-
cape the necessity of putting peremp-
tory stop to the ''children's talking nom
sense" whereupon Dick forthwith re-
verted to the theory promulgated by
those reliable authorities, Carriers Tom
and Bill, gravely declaring that he was
disposed to coincide with their opin-
ions, and add the full force of his per-
sonal testimony and convictions to the
at present somewhat vaguely supported
belief in the existence of the Barnes
Common Wrath.
''For I'm in position to swear" he
concluded emphatically, that we
passed no human creature on our way,
and no living thing passed us! How
then could the feet-footed messenger
so graphically described by Messrs.
Bill and Tom have been other than a
bodiless being, who momentarily elect
ed TO adopt the female form divine?"
"But, Dick, surely you don't believe
In ghosts in the nineteenth century?''
questioned Nellie with severely judic-
ial air. lone would think to hear you
talk you were silly brainless school
boy instead Of"
"A sage and reflective man-about-
town." interrupted her brother grayely,
ITO be Conunued.l